|
Have you played this game?You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in. |
Playlists and Wishlists |
RSS Feeds New member reviews
Updates to downloadable files
All updates to this page
|
|
About the StoryWhere the Iron Curtain divides East and West, the frontier is a no man's land between freedom and captivity, a place where moments lost or precautions not taken exact a toll in men's lives. In Border Zone, you cross this barrier not once, but three times, as three different characters in a fast-paced story of international intrigue.The pulse-pounding tension of espionage is heightened by the addition of real time, which ticks on regardless of your actions. As you race against the clock to complete your missions, you'll find yourself caught up in a spine-tingling adventure that's far more suspenseful than any spy thriller you've ever read. The story begins on the train to Litzenburg, a peaceful country just outside the Iron Curtain. In the border town of Ostnitz, Constitution Day festivities include a speech by the American ambassador. But plans are afoot to destabilize this key neutral territory by assassinating the diplomat. Speeding towards the border through the Eastern bloc country of Frobnia are an easy-going American businessman, an ambitious young American spy, and a ruthless KGB agent. All three are soon to be entangled in the assassination plot, their lives intertwining as each carries out his perilous assignment. You'll see the story from three viewpoints, as you step into the shoes of a different major character in each of the three chapters of Border Zone. Set in separate locations on or near the border, the chapters are complete stories in themselves, each with its pwn riveting conclusion. The on-line hints in Border Zone will help you out when you need it. But hints take you only so far. Even when you know exactly what to do, discretion and timing are crucial as you outwit the KGB, evade a snarling pack of search dogs, make a desperate assault on the border, and count down the moments to the assassination. Border Zone was written by Marc Blank, a pioneer in interactive fiction and the author of such ground-breaking works as Zork and Deadline. In Border Zone, Marc takes the clever plotting and masterly prose of a top-notch thriller, brings it to life through interactive fiction, and intensifies the experience with the addition of real time. So steel your nerves, and don't blow your cover, friend. You've a long way to go before you come in from the cold. Game Details |
Editorial Reviews
SPAG
All three chapters are played in real time. If you ponder your moves too long, the story may go on without you. This is both good and bad. The puzzles are generally the save/restore type; although they are generally logical and good, they are not the type that you are likely to hit on the first time. You have to learn from several failures before you hit on the correct strategy. This is fine for puzzle fans, but not so good for realism fans (you can't RESTORE in real life). However, the whole idea of doing the game in real time seems to be geared towards pleasing the realism fans, though this may not have been the best game to do it.
-- Graeme Cree
See the full review
Tags
Member Reviews
| Average Rating:  Number of Reviews: 1 Write a review |
Intense Infocom spy game where the clock runs between actions, February 3, 2016Border zone is stressful for me. Unlike most IF, you have to type very fast, as the clock keeps running and running. I had to type super fast on the iPad and I kept dying from typos, even using slow time and the walkthrough.
The story and puzzles are actually really fun. I enjoyed the game a lot, especially the first act (where you have to smuggle information out of a train) and the third act (where you are a double agent, and have to stop an assassination without people knowing you did it). The three acts can be started at any time, and each follows a different person.
Stressful, but rewarding.
If you enjoyed Border Zone...
Related Games
People who like Border Zone also gave high ratings to these games:| Trinity, by Brian Moriarty Average member rating: (83 ratings)You're neither an adventurer nor a professional thrill-seeker. You're simply an American tourist in London, enjoying a relaxing stroll through the famous Kensington Gardens. When World War III starts and the city is vaporized moments... |
Missive, by Joey Fu
Average member rating: (13 ratings)
It's your birthday today. Your ex-girlfriend brings you a present, and inside are a series of mysterious letters that tell the story of an old love triangle that ended in murder. Solve puzzles, solve the mystery, or get wasted and do...
| The Mysteries of Baroque, by William Brown Average member rating: (4 ratings)Mad science raised you from the dead! Pursue justice or vengeance, love or secrets, as you save or destroy the world with forbidden eldritch power. "The Mysteries of Baroque" is a 200,000-word interactive Gothic horror novel by William... |
Recommended Lists
Border Zone appears in the following Recommended Lists:Infocom Salvaged Adventures by Tristano
List of the Infocom adventures that were recovered from the salvaged Infocom hard drive, and their source code was published on GitHub in April 2019 by Jason Scott for educational purposes and in an attempt to preserve them from...
Spy games by MathBrush
Games involving espionage, whether military or industrial. I've tried to put a few especially good games first, but the rest are in no particular order. This list includes games of excellent quality as well as games of lower quality.
Favorite Fours From Industrious Implementors, 1G by Walter Sandsquish
Some IF writers write more than others. Here are my favorite four games from authors who've released at least half-a-dozen games to date. This list covers 1st-generation text-adventure implementors, who published the bulk of their work...
Polls
The following polls include votes for Border Zone:Influential Games by Rose
As a historical exercise, I've begun compiling a list of IF games that have either done something ground breaking with the medium or otherwise influenced it; and I've turned it into a poll so everyone can have input on the expansion....
Games That Changed Your Mind by Ghalev
Before you played X, you never thought you'd like horror games. Before you played Y, you never thought you could take a game with a dragon in it seriously. Before you played Z, you thought linear games would just frustrate you. Tell me...
Fast-paced action scenes by Juhana
Fast-paced action is something that's notoriously hard to do in IF where waiting for player's input necessarily pauses the game every turn. Which games have succeeded in creating action scenes that convey the sense of urgency, danger and...
This is version 8 of this page, edited by Zape on 23 August 2020 at 12:45am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item